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Message from the Director 

Welcome to the 2nd season of Stray Kats Theatre Company and our mission to offer quality entertainment and thought-provoking theatre. While we continue to build recognition in the community and save for full productions in the near future, we press on with staged readings by professional actors and stimulating post-play discussions. Join our mailing list for the latest news and our monthly newsletter guaranteed to entertain as well as inform.

 I look forward to greeting you at the beautiful Alexandria Room in historic Edmond Town Hall.
-
                Kate Katcher, Artistic Director

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Auditions: General auditions can be scheduled for Stray Kats by calling 203-514-2221 for an appointment or by email at info@straykatstheatrecompany.org. Members of Actors Equity are welcome! 




Stray Kats Theatre Company is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization and a recognized public charity approved by the State of Connecticut.

DANBURY NEWS TIMES      David Begelman, Theater Critic    Updated 08:43 p.m., Friday, January 20, 2012

Rehearsing with the pros: 'Butcher's Cabin' at Newtown

NEWTOWN -- You've got to hand it to the Stray Kats Theatre Company and its artistic director, Kate Katcher. On what looks like a shoestring and a modest venue in Newtown's Edmond Town Hall, audiences last weekend had the privilege of watching professional actors do a staged reading of a new and thought-provoking play.

The drama was "Butcher's Cabin" by playwright Kent R. Brown, an author of 16 other dramas produced in Canada, Belgium, The Netherlands and Australia, as well as in this country.

The company of two men and three women was led by Keir Dullea, best known for his leading role as Commander Dave Bowman in Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece "2001: A Space Odyssey," as well as featured roles in many other films and plays.

In "Butcher's Cabin," the audience was in for a double treat: viewing performers begin a rehearsal of a play with scripts in hand, followed by a question-and-answer session with the playwright and his cast.

Amos Butcher (Dullea) is a felon convicted of a double murder who is given a compassionate release from prison due to a terminal illness. He is first seen in a cabin ravaged by inattention and filled with pornographic graffiti, the handiwork of marauding adolescents over the years.

Butcher is irate about the condition of the place, irascibly ordering others he has hired to clean things up. They include an alcoholic housekeeper, Valerie, a hireling who is a good deal short on task diligence and maturity herself, and her son.

The latter is a wastrel whose girlfriend, Jody, is a lesbian stripper who declares she may or may not marry him.

Butcher awaits the arrival of Charlene, whom he intends to marry despite the short time he has to live. Playwright Brown's drama aims at depicting how all the principals are in various stages of conflict with each other, a tension that begins to dissolve as does the graffiti in a full-scale production.

Another side of Butcher is eventually revealed through sudden hallucinatory episodes he experiences that recall the eventful moments of the crimes for which he was sentenced to prison.

The characters, despite being members of a Tennessee underclass, draw together after Amos' revelations. Jody performs the marriage ceremony of Amos and Charlene, while other characters join in the celebratory mood.

The drama is a work in progress for the playwright, the theme of which brings to mind one of Shakespeare's observations: "How oft when men are at the point of death have they been merry."

Dullea was capably assisted in the rehearsal by Katie Sparer, Kim Maresca, Emilie Roberts and Michael Wright, all of whom contributed solidly to the effort. Future productions at the theater include "Seascape," "Wonderful World" and "The Subject Was Roses."

The Newtown Bee  Theater Review— By Julie Stern

‘Butcher’s Cabin’ The Latest Example Of Why One Should Keep Track Of Stray Kats Theatre Company

The Stray Kats Theatre Company, which began last year with a series of staged play readings in Edmond Town Hall's Alexandria Room, provided a rare treat to the full house last Saturday night: Kent R. Brown of Fairfield — who has over the years been playwright in residence and professor of theater at various colleges and universities, including Fairfield U. and the University of Arkansas, garnering numerous prizes for his work — unveiled his latest play, performed by a top-notch cast. When it was over, and everyone had drunk coffee and nibbled on pastries from Andrea's Pastry Shop, Mr Brown hosted a session in which the audience could provide feedback as to what they liked, and what they wanted clarified. He listened graciously, explained his reasoning, and in some cases thanked the speaker and promised to make revisions, so that in the end, the crowd had not only seen a riveting performance of a serious play, but had the feeling of actual participation in the process.

The cast, who had rehearsed for only 15 hours, read their lines from hand-held scripts. Using minimal props, director Kate Katcher urged the audience to use their imagination in picturing a highly detailed and continuously evolving set consisting of an abandoned cabin in the woods, which over the course of the play would become cleaned up.

Set in modern day backwoods Tennessee, Butcher's Cabin is a slightly gothic southern drama along the lines of Lanford Wilson, John Guare and Sam Shepard, with echoes of Tennessee Williams, and perhaps a touch of Irish dramatist, Martin McDonagh. This is not to say that Brown's work is derivative; rather it belongs in very good company.

The premise is that Butcher's cabin has stood empty for half a century, ever since a young farmer, Amos Butcher, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his father and his pregnant wife. Now fifty years later, an elderly semi-invalid Butcher has been released to spend what remains of his life in this shack.

Relying on Mason — a good-old-boy contractor and one time high school athlete — to do repairs and renovate the cabin, and Valerie — a recovering alcoholic and ex prostitute — to serve as live-in housekeeper and home health aide, the irascible Amos drifts in and out of reality. With a faltering memory, Amos is often confused, lost in the past, reliving the events of one horrible day. He quotes letters and talks of a fiancée, Charlene, who is arriving any day now…

Other characters appear: Mason's sometime girlfriend, a cheerful lesbian stripper moves in and befriends him, and then Charlene arrives. She is real. A prison visitor from a religious order, she had met Amos in the visiting room and had indeed promised to marry him.

In its conception, the play is set over a period of about three weeks, in which the cabin becomes repaired, painted, furnished and decorated. In fact, the cabin itself is a metaphor for the characters, who in the course of their interactions, show concern for one another. In the intimacy of the cabin, they share their own dark stories and private pain, which makes them seem less grotesque, and more appealing.

The company of famous Broadway and Hollywood actor Keir Dullea, ably backed by Kim Maresca, Emilie Roberts, Katie Sparer and Michael Wright, did a wonderful job.

Stray Kats is definitely a terrific addition to the Newtown cultural scene. The only downside is that each production is a one night stand, so you need to be alert to their schedule and get tickets in advance.